Cosmo Cricket

Did you miss us?

 

Okay- We made it home just hours ago and we are very tired. We had a great time seeing a lot of our friends at CHA Summer in Orlando. Our new lines "were off the charts!" The Boyfriend was the most popular, but not by very far.

We had a blast and had the chance to meet some of our fun store owners and also some of our blog followers.They were so nice!

Let's see. so while we were  in Orlando:

 I had my 25th wedding anniversary. No worries, my wife and I had decided to do something special for it in the Fall instead. Sometimes I get way busy traveling for work. off to Chicago on Monday.

Julie celebrates her 35th Birthday today. She is really getting old, dont you think? Happy Birthday Julie!

We got to visit Cocoa Beach. If you don't know what Cocoa Beach is famous for, check out the picture at the top of this page. You got it! This is where Tony Nelson found the Bottle with Jeannie in it. I love that Television series!

Speaking of Cocoa Beach. We decided to go there for a couple of hours the day before the show started. While Eric and Julie were strolling hand in hand along the beach. I was kind of just standing around soaking in the sun when there were a couple of guys in their 20's who had way too much to drink that were going around harrassing people on the beach. They were vulgar, obnoxoius, and flat our looking for trouble.

They came across a larger man in his early sixties and started harrassing him and his family. The older gentleman was very calm and asked the young men to leave very nicely. The two troublemakers started making threats against this guy and his family, when another gentleman, out of know where came and stood by the 65 year old man. The other guy was probably in his mid 50's. He was short and stocky. The two continued to try to encourage these losers to leave as did the lifeguards on the beach.

I was impressed with how controlled the older gentleman were. They probably had seen a lot in there life. There was no fear in them at all.

There was a huge crowd watching and after being threatend once again, the guy that came over to help the older guy said, If you think you want to try to mess with us bring it on. The young guys ran at the old guys and the old guys cleaned these punks clocks. They got them on the ground, in the sand and pummeled them. One of the young guys had his head split open and tried to run off.

 The Police showed up and escorted the two young guys away. I have to tell you, the good guys won that day! It was exciting. Okay......I know............. you probably had to be there!

I wondered if that happens everyday at 2:00PM for the tourists? Hmmmmmm? 

Have a great day! Also since it is Julie's Birthday, leave a comment and three lucky people will win either a Boy Friend , Jolly By Golly, or a Earth Love Paper Crafting Kit.   

Have a great day!

Hello From Florida

Hi Everyone,

I always think I'm going to blog from the show, but I always forget how much work the shows are and how tired I am! OK, so I apologize for no photos. Lindsay has the camera and well, if I wait till I have photos from it, you won't get any blogging.

So, here's how things have been so far.

Saturday:

Flew to Florida. Got to our condo at 1:30 in the morning. The code for the key box would not work. Lindsay went off to find someone to help us. Eric and I waited as we ate a nutritious meal of chicken strips and french fries from McDonald's. It's amazing how good bad food can taste when you are starving and tired!

We eventually discovered that our condo had been changed. We got to the right one and the key worked for the lock and we all went to bed......... until 7:00 am.

Sunday:
8:00 am, leaving for our Crafter's Home presentation. Eric had stayed up even later than Lindsay and I putting the finishing touches onto the powerpoint. On the way there, Lindsay joked that our booth probably never arrived.......... NEVER JOKE ABOUT THESE THINGS!!!!

9:10 am, the presentation is to start in 10 minutes. We are standing in our booth location. There is no booth. Eric says that he's glad he got the power point done. Lindsay says a word that costs him $5 because he left the adapter for the laptop at the condo. We have no catalogs or product samples, they are packed with the booth. We have no power point to show, no adapter cable. Fortunately, I am carrying all the design team projects that I brought with me on the plane. I send Lindsay off to do a presentation with nothing but his BS, charming personality and a few layouts! I wait at the empty booth spot just in case our booth shows up..... which it did thanks to some sweet talk and eyelash batting! We got the samples for the presentation just in time to pass them out at the end.

10:00 am, We put up the booth. I was wearing clinical strength deodorant, but boy, oh boy was I glistening......OK, sweating like a man!....... in that humid and hot Florida weather!

4:00 pm, Booth is done, time for food. I had comfort food. Chicken pot pie. Yummy!

6:00 pm, movie at the condo and then bed, exhausted!

Monday:

Everygirl needs to get a makeover at the Mac counter at least once in her life! I never wore much make-up before Cosmo Cricket. I was always a jeans and tee-shirt kind of girl. Never any jewerly. Doc Martins for comfort and the fact that one pair lasted years. Totally practical and low maintenance!

Then, one day, about two years ago, a friend told me that I could use some help with my look. She recommended getting a make-over at the Mac counter. I had never done anything like that before! Most of my make-up came from All a Dollar. I scheduled my first appointment and I've been hooked ever since! So, first thing Monday morning, I went to the Mac store and had a makeover!

Then the three of us headed to Cocoa Beach. This is the beach that Genie was rescued on by Tony Nielson and Major Healey. While at the beach, I gathered these really cool seashells that the locals think are ordinary and not that cool. I love them though. Lindsay saw a fight and you'll have to have him tell you the story. I have only heard it about 200 times and so I'm not sure I'd get all the details right.

Tuesday:

The show! It went great! We'll try to get photos. I promise!

And We're Off...

We'll be leaving to Florida tomorrow afternoon. So, lots to do today! We'll be blogging from the show, I think! Check in often to see what's up...... maybe you'll even catch a photo of Eric and Lindsay by the pool!

In the meantime, enjoy these fabulous Jolly By Golly projects!







Congratulations to Vicki Flinchum who won an Early Bird Paper Crafting Kit! Vicki, send your info to kristen@cosmocricket.com and she'll get you your prize!

If you didn't win this time, run on over to Megan Klauer's blog. She is featuring an Earth Love giveaway!

Natasja's Wedding Bouquet Part 2

This may seem a little intimidating to some of you, but it's really not that hard to do. Keep in mind, that you can use this technique for making lots of things, not just bouquets. I think a fall paper flower arrangement for my dining table would be cool. Oh, and make sure you watch until the very, very end!
Wedding bouquet part 2 - Cosmo Cricket from Natasja Verbeek on Vimeo.

PS: It's my understanding that Tim is posting the winner for yesterday's contest on his blog.

We Love Tim, Tim Love's Earth Love

Sorry for the late entry everyone, but check out how cool this is.
Tim Holtz emailed me when the sneak peek went up last week and asked if he could use our Earth Love papers for his Make and Take at CHA. Well, you know it took quite a bit of arm twisting..... I mean really it's not like he's that famous...... how much exposure is one to get from such a trade?!?!? But in the end, out of pure charity on my part, I gave in and told him even though nobody would probably end up at his booth..... I mean it's always dead whenever he's there...... that I guessed I could help a fellow artist just to be kind. (wink, wink) ;) ;)

Really, if you've ever been to a CHA and have even tried to talk to Tim, you know that you are going to have to fight through a crowd of 'Tim-crazy' fans risking life and limb in the process. So, a special thanks to the man for wanting to use our papers!

Why We Love The Boyfriend™

Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slowdown in the overall performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0 and NBA 3.0. And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind; Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Try entering the command

C:// I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME

and download Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0. If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will create Snoring Loudly.wav files.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall another Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have a limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider additional software to improve memory and
performance. I personally recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 6.9.

Good Luck,
Joyce at Tech Support Just a side note, we don't plan on releasing The Husband for quite some time. We are having way too much fun with The Boyfriend, currently. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke......."

Natasja's Wedding Bouquet Class

Hi Everyone. Natasja made this awesome tutorial of her wedding bouquet. This is part one. We'll be airing part two later this week. But today, you'll see how to make those awesome flowers, which I think would be really cool in lots of different applications!

Wedding bouquet part 1 - Cosmo Cricket from Natasja Verbeek on Vimeo.

To order the Early Bird Paper Crafting Kit Natasja used in this project, click here then scroll down to the last item on the page. Although you're ordering on our site, your local store will ship your order. It's a great way to support them!

More Sneaks of the CHA Goodies

Take a look at how cute the CHA projects are turning out! Debbie Olson sent me some darling cards from each line. I picked one from each to show you.

Then, I got this charming Earth Love project from Lisa Falduto. Lisa is a previous Cosmo Cricket design team member and she and I are good friends. She is one of the best altered project artists I know!


Keep checking the blog for more CHA project peeks and for Natasja's next video tutorial! You won't want to miss it!

Florida CHA.... Does that mean SWIMSUIT?!?!?

If you are going to the Craft and Hobby Association trade show in Florida. Or, if you are just having fun by the side of a pool or on a beach this summer, you will most likely enjoy this post!

Eric, Lindsay and myself will be staying in a condo in Florida for the show. There is a pool. Those four words are scarier to me than almost any others! Yes ladies..... we are talking SWIMSUITS!

So, after listening to much complaining about my thighs and current swimsuit options, Lindsay sent me the following email.

WARNING: Go to the bathroom first, especially if you've had four kids like me. I laughed so hard I nearly had an accident and had to run frantically, making it in the nick of time, whilst in the middle of reading this!

When I was a child in the 1950s the bathing suit for the mature figure was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job. Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip.

The mature woman has a choice-she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus who escaped from Disney's Fantasia or she can wander around every run of the mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of florescent rubber bands.

What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room.

The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which give the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you are protected from shark attacks as any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash. I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place, I gasped in horror - my boobs had disappeared!

Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit. It took a while to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib..

The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups... The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speed bump. I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment.

The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play dough wearing undersized cling wrap.

As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, 'Oh, there you are,' she said, admiring the bathing suit.

I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me.

I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a

lump of masking tape , and a floral two piece which gave the appearance of an oversized napkin in a serving ring.

I struggled into a pair of leopard skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day.

I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning.

I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them.

Finally, I found a suit that fit...a two-piece affair with a shorts style bottom and a loose blouse-type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it. My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured.

When I got home, I found a label which read -- Material might become transparent in water.'

So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too .. I'll be the one in cut off jeans and a t-shirt!

Another Sneak & Winners

Let me begin by saying that Eric and I cracked up all day yesterday reading comments referring to our team of designers! Eric and I do make a great team!! Honestly, it is SO much work to create all these products. To hear your kind words and to feel your excitement just makes it all worthwhile! Thanks so much for that!

We are thrilled also to hear about all the great scrapbook stores out there. We know how hard these owners are working! And, we're glad to give them a bit of free press and a chance at some free product too. We'll get to the winners in a minute.....

Before we do, let's talk about those 6" paper pads. We had lots of comments from all you cardmakers about how excited you are for these. You really need to give Debbie Olson and Ellen Hutson a special thank you for talking us into making them!

We thought that if you liked them in the new lines, you may like them in one of our hottest selling lines ever...... Early Bird!!!! (If you look closely at the below cards, you may see a peek of some new patterns exclusive to the pads.)

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the following winners. Send your address and contact info for your store to kristen@cosmocricket.com and we'll send you your prizes.

Anya said:
Wow! They are all fantastic! How exciting to see a 6x6er :) My LSS, Stamp Fanci needs to win so that I can find these great papers somewhere local!

Melissa Cook said:

Wow I'm getting the Boyfriend Paper! The Sassy Scrapper in Murfreesboro TN is a great store. They are very helpful and kind people. They have great sales too ;) I know a lot of the ladies from my Fiskars board too. They also carry the Cosmo Cricket papers I drool over and just have to have!

Barbara said:

my fav independent "store" is A Million Little Things. This is a place where you can find the newest and greatest for good prices. She has good deals on shipping too. The customer service is awesome.

(Side note here: Jill, the owner of "A Million Little Things," was my roommate in college. I decided not to penalize her for knowing me, believe me, it's been punishment enough for her already! What are the odds? Her store was actually picked twice and we had to re-draw for our third winner!)